Information and Past Activities

A very good turn out for the annual "Christmas Meal". Members and friends joined together to celebrate another fantastic year of the club.

After an enjoyable meal and good conversation on the table, it was time for David's speech. After the problems the year before, it was good to be back in the Gallery with some excellent evenings. The club continues to flourish with several new members adding to the ethos of the club.

After the speech, the quiz papers were marked with two tables sharing the prizes. Next, was the raffle. As is the case every year, there was a good number of prizes, so there was a good chance of winning something. Considering the amount of art materials on show, the Teddy Bear was the first to go.

​Another very enjoyable evening and many thanks to Moira for organising it.

Another excellent turn out for the annual "Christmas Meal". Members and friends joined together to celebrate another fantastic year of the club.

​After one or two problems towards the end of the year, due to building work at Salford Art Gallery, it has been good to start of the New Year; back there with some excellent demonstrations already.​As David said in his speech, "Painting can be a lonely occupation and meetings can be rather quiet as members concentrate on their work. Occasions such as this, as well as the tea breaks, give us a chance to talk about our art and to generally socialise."​​After the meal, David's annual speech and the quiz results, it was onto the raffle! With so many prizes surely there must be an even contribution to each table. This proved not to be the case as we waited in vain on ours for the first number to be called out. Thankfully, to loud applause, we eventually had a winner!​​Another very enjoyable evening and many thanks to Moira for organising it.​

A long term member Pat Bellotti sadly passed away on the 4th December.This is just to provide the final schedule for the funeral for Pat Bellotti. Tues 12 Dec at Blackley Cemetery for a service at 12.30​We are scheduled to meet at one of the chapels at Blackley Cemetery. Since Pat wanted a green burial, I think it's the chapel nearest to the Woodlands burial site. If I am wrong I will let you know, but the plan is to assemble at 12:30pm for a half hour remembrance with some of Pat's favorite piano music by Debussy and some words from myself and Matthew and some of Mum's beautiful and very moving poetry. We only have the chapel for half an hour. So, if anyone wishes to say a few words in the chapel, please let us know ASAP. We'll work out the detailed plan around this.Then we proceed to the Woodlands burial site at 1pm for the actual burial. We'll speak a few more words and poetry at the burial. Again, if you wish to say something let us know, though of course if anyone feels moved to speak at the plot I think we will have more time for impromptu remembrances and stories so don't worry if you're not sure until the moment.What we really need from everyone who plans to attend is an RSVP so we know how many there will be:1 At the chapel2 At the burial3 Coming to the house afterwards to pick up a keepsake; this one's especially important as Pat's house isn't large and we may need to make an arrangement for some folks to go to Slattery's nearby for a bit.I also just want to thank everyone who has reached out in email, online or by phone for all your kind words and to apologize if we haven't been good at responding, but we're a bit overwhelmed with things to sort out. We do hope to make up for that when we see you.Many thanks,Victoria and Matthew​

Hello Everyone,There are major works going on at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery and because of this the Art Club will not be able to meet there again until after Christmas.Instead, we will meet at the Broughton Hub. Address: 50 Rigby St, Salford M7 4BQThere is a nice large community room for us to use, there are tea and coffee making facilities and there is a large car park with free parking. I’ve copied a Google map to show you where it is below. The club meetings will be at the same time on Wednesday and the programme is the same. So, hope to see everyone there again next Wednesday.Moira,Club Secretary

Also we are pleased to have Graham Walker coming dressed in the World war one uniform to pose for the portrait session and Billy Unsworth's grandson is hoping to come along and bring some letters written by Billy

Over the last couple of Wednesday evenings (2 x 2 hours) I ran a demonstration and workshop on Urban Sketching at Salford Art Club, held in Salford Museum and Art Gallery. I am also a member of this art club so for some reason (I think it always is when you know people!) it was a little bit more nerve wracking than usual. However, members made me feel very at ease and we had a couple of great sessions. Fortunately, on the first session earlier in July, the weather was great, enabling me to demonstrate my colour-first technique outside and also set the group off with some thumbnail sketching practice around the outside of the gallery as a way of capturing snapshot views of the place before settling on an overall view. Unfortunately we had to run the second session inside the gallery but with plenty to sketch (and an example to hand of how this compares with the outside situation), this wasn’t too much of an imposition! The main focus of both sessions was capturing the essence of the place using relatively quick techniques and creating depth in the drawing (without necessarily focusing on perspective only). Members seemed to really enjoy the sessions and engage with the approach of drawing from life. For me, with an interest in reportage illustration as well as urban sketching, this is the focus of all of my work.​The DemonstrationThe demonstration and workshop was based around some top tips for urban sketching. I also run workshops about urban sketching and drawing from life so the tips are my starter for 10 if you like! Composition, proportion and measurement and creating a depth in the drawing were the main talking points as I demonstrated my Colour-First approach. I used an A3 board with the paint palette clipped to the side but this isn’t the easiest of sizes to hold in this way (My usual urban sketches are about A4 size unless I am working to commission). However, I wanted to show how I organise myself when creating this type of sketch.

​The process as shown above is as follows:

Set up and stand directly in front of your subject matter with everything you need to hand. You need to be able to directly look easily at the subject as you are not going to measure anything at this stage.

Place the colour loosely just taking note of overall shapes, allow colours to bleed together (don’t work together with the brush), use a limited palette 3-4 colours at most.

Working from big shapes to detail, use a fountain pen or fine liner to draw the subject of interest. Note you need to make sure the paint is fairly dry otherwise the ink will bleed. However, this can give a nice effect as long as its managed! For the background, you need to have a finer line weight (sometimes I use a watercolour pencil rather than a pen to achieve the ‘distance’ effect).

The discussion about creating depth in a drawing focused on identifying Foreground, Middleground and Background and ensuring that each of these is readable through the way they are presented in the drawing. Darker more detailed elements in the foreground (perhaps using red or a brighter advancing colour to bring them forward), the main focus of interest in the middle ground and less detailed, and finer line weight and paler elements in the background (perhaps using more receding colours like blues).

​(With Thanks to Tony Easom of Salford Art Club for all the group photos from the evening sessions)Materials used focused on discussions about the fountain pens I use (Lamy Safari with extra fine nib (main line work); Carbon Platinum pen (for finer lines) and Kuretake Brush pen (for the darks and foreground). Watercolours are a mix of Windsor and Newton and Daniel Smith tube paints decanted into pans.ThumbnailsAfter the demonstration (and a well deserved break for everyone-although I have to admit to talking about sketchbooks and sharing some of my work during the break!) I briefly outlined the idea of quick thumbnails (15 minutes or less for each image) as a way of capturing a place in multiple images (you divide a sheet or page into e.g. quarters for this). This is useful as a way of identifying a preferred composition so that you can then move onto a more detailed sketch of one of the views. It is also useful when you are visiting a place and perhaps want to create more of an overview of a place than one scene will do. These can then be selectively coloured or worked up if required. The thumbnails below were done around the outside of the gallery prior to the session as a way of showing the approach. The group then had a practice at creating thumbnails before finishing the first session.

​Colour-first inside the GalleryOn the second week we weren’t as lucky with the weather but no matter! There was plenty to keep everyone busy and we chose a spot in-between galleries with some wonderful layering! Here’s my demo. piece (colour first) as an aide memoire, before the group got started on their own colour-first pieces.

​As you can see from the images below, everyone really got stuck into giving colour first a go, even though it takes a while to really get your head around the process, especially with respect to abstract colour

​With thanks to everyone who came along to this two week demonstration and workshop and I do hope members will carry on sketching and capturing the world around them from life. There really is nothing better! I received some great feedback too and I’m already looking forward to more demonstrations and workshops I have booked in the coming months. Watch this space for updates and results!

A great day out for the club and a winner from the club. We look forward to future events such as this. Well done Carol.By quaysculture on July 11, 2017As part of Unnatural Borders in May, Quays Culture ran a Greater Manchester-wide art competition which saw groups from across the boroughs visit MediaCityUK to interpret the sculptures in their chosen medium. We saw some fantastic work produced, which went to a judging panel to decide the winner. After much deliberation, Carol Parkes of Salford Art Club was chosen, with panel lead Michael Simpson, Director of Visual Arts at The Lowry, commending the image:The winning entry captures not only the immensity of the sculpture itself, but also the themes of endangerment and the impact of humankind on the natural world. The collaged letters are as overwhelming as the threat we pose to the natural environment, and break through the borders of the image itself.

The weather was very good to us this year for our outing to Chester.Bob our driver got us there in good time for everyone to disperse as usual,in all different directions.Some down to the river, some to the shops and some to sit and view thepassing crowd. The 1st of July was race day and everywhere there were peopledressed to catch the eye, hats to stun, and dresses of all colours andlengths also stunning. Some of the bodies inside the dresses, well, theywere challenging but who cared, it was a brilliant carefree day foreveryone.It does seem that many did sketch and there was plenty of subjects there foreveryone who wanted to.I hope everyone enjoyed the day, those that I spoke to said they had andeveryone returned to the coach on time. Bob got us back without gettingcaught in the race crowds. So thank you to him​Dorothy and Pam

Several art club members and special guests.exhibited at the Cornerstone Salford as part of "The Art of Salford Exhibition" This was a new venture organized by a member Tony Easom. It proved to be a great social occasion for members and a chance for local people to admire the paintings on show. ​Tony is looking to make this an annual event, and with very few venues now available to exhibit work, a welcome addition to club activities.​We were pleased to be supported in this new venture by our club President Geoffrey Key. It was also a chance for club member Liz Ackerley to capture the opening night as paintings.

Roy MewhaRoy is being cared for at The Willows Care Home in Higher Broughton. He can receive visitors, the best times being between 10 am and 12pm and after 4.00pm.

Albert SawyerAlbert is being cared for at home and is also quite poorly

Robert BindlossRobert is in sheltered accommodation and is looked after by carers and his sister Eleanor who visits regularly. Some of Roberts paintings are on display at the following address: John Laycock Frames and Galleries, 5c Grove Rd., Huddersfield HD1 6NBtel: 01484 542987 mobile :07929 789995​If you want more information about any of these long standing members of Salford Art Club, please contact Moira, Club Secretary. ​